Printed Labels

AM Labels are a professional label printing company with the capability of producing printouts that have up to four colours which are UV and water resistant.

There are three ways a company can acquire printed labels,

Supplied printed either single or multi-colour ready for use.

Supplied pre-printed single or multi-colour for the customer to over-print, usually with black text

Supplied in blank form for the customer to print in colour with their own colour label printer

If you would like labels either printed or pre-printed, AM Labels can offer the following solutions.

Printed Labels

A label can be supplied pre-printed, either tinted one colour or printed up to seven colours. We have a wide range of cutters available, so there is a good chance we can accommodate your exact label size requirement, without additional tooling costs.

We also have a good selection of standard label sizes available off the shelf, both direct thermal and thermal transfer.

Tinted Labels

Tinted or coloured labels are labels printed one colour over the entire surface. The most common uses of tinted labels are for simple visual identification, e.g. a different colour for each day of the week, a product category or a type of warning. Tinted or coloured labels are commonly over-printed by the end user with text or graphics, using a thermal printer.

When you order tinted or colour thermal labels you need to specify the colour. This can be as simple as light or dark red. If you would like an exact colour or shade, you can specify a Pantone number, which tells the label manufacturer the proportions of the base colours to mix to achieve an exact colour match click here to see the pantone reference guide. Alternatively, label companies such as AM Labels can help you find the right colour. You will also need to specify the type of finish you require. Matt and semi-gloss are the most common finishes but a high gloss finish is also available.

Any label material can be tinted, including paper, synthetics such as polyester, polyethylene and polypropylene and card. Tinted or colour thermal labels are also available in direct thermal and thermal transfer options for over-printing.

1 - 7 Colour Printed Labels

We have made 1-7 colour printed labels a separate category to distinguish them from four colour process labels which are described in a following section. Printed labels are most commonly used for product identification and promotion, special offers and health and safety etc.

Although seven colour printing is available, most applications can be satisfied with 1-4 colours. If you require more than four colours, it is usually more cost effective to use four colour processing. As a rule, the cost of the labels increases with the number of colours, as does the one-off printing plate costs if supplied by a label printer using a conventional printing process such as flexographic printing (flexo). Digital printing does not require printing plates and can be more cost effective for smaller quantities.

As with tinted labels, you will need to specify the colours, e.g. using Pantone numbers as described in the previous section. You can sometimes reduce the number of colours required if say a light and dark shade of a colour is required. This can be done by printing the light part as very small dots, which appear to the eye as a lighter shade.

Pre-Printed Labels

Pre-printed labels are intended for over-printing by the customer using a thermal printer or laser printer. A typical application could be for a label to be pre-printed by a label company with a multi-coloured logo and for the customer to over-print individual product details in black. Labels can be pre-printed up to seven colours or four colour process with spot colours.

4 Colour Process

Four colour process uses the four process colours, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) to create multi-colour labels. The four process colours are printed as very small dots to create photographic like images. The quality of the image depends on the size of the dots or the resolution of the process.

Four colour process printing can be achieved using a number of printing technologies, including flexography (flexo), laser, inkjet and lithography (litho). For roll labels, the most common technology used by label manufacturers is flexography. With this technology, some colours may not appear as solid as required. This can be rectified by using additional spot colours. A label may therefore be specified as four colour process plus two spot colours.

The artwork for four colour process labels can be defined in a range of formats, e.g. high resolution jpg or psd, but you will need save the artwork with the correct resolution for the desired result.

Printed Barcode Labels

If you wish to have barcode labels supplied pre-printed with barcodes, AM labels can offer a wide range of label sizes, materials and adhesives. Barcode labels can be supplied printed with any of the standard barcode symbologies, both linear and 2D. Barcode labels can also be supplied with additional print up to six colours. We can also supply barcode labels with sequential barcodes, or barcodes derived from a database.

For expert advice on a choice of printed label or tinted label for your application, or for any aspect of label and barcode printing, please call our sales team on 01536 414222